Welcome to Louisiana Lefty, a podcast about politics and community in Louisiana where we make the case that the health of the state requires a strong progressive movement, fueled by the critical work of organizing on the ground. Our goal is to democratize information, demystify party politics, and empower you to join the mission because victory for Louisiana requires you.
On this week's episode, I host Peyton Rose Michelle, a young leader with Louisiana Trans Advocates and elected member of the Democratic State Central Committee for a discussion on anti-trans legislation, organizing at the state capitol, and getting pronouns right.
Peyton Rose Michelle! Thank you so much for joining me on Louisiana Lefty today.
Hi, Lynda. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here.
Well, it's an honor to have you. And I always start the podcast with how my guests and I met. You are yet another person who I've met during the course of the pandemic. So, we have not yet met in person, I believe.
No.
But we met over the course of the Louisiana Democratic Party leadership elections, I believe, is the first we really communicated with one another.
I think so. Yeah.
I guess that was in the fall of last year.
Yeah, we had our (DSCC member) elections July 11th. So, it probably was around August. Yeah.
Right. And I have written about--you actually were the person who I credit with getting me to join the chair race, and what I have referred to as a rather quixotic run because it was an 11-day campaign. But you made an impression on me enough that I felt it was really important to step up and engage in that race. So, I thank you for trusting me with the information you shared with me. It got me involved in that.
Of course, yeah. You know, we really needed some representation.
Well, what is your political origin story? What got you interested in politics?
You know, I only recently got into politics. After I graduated high school, I started getting involved with Louisiana Trans Advocates on more of a social support level and working with Louisiana Trans Advocates and just supporting and learning about trans people, trans issues and then later learning about racial justice issues and all of the other issues that we face in the world, it really just kept being more and more inspiring for me to know that I wanted to step up and make this a pretty large part of my life to be politically involved. And then someone recruited me to the DSCC to run because they were trying to add progressive voices to the DSCC. I was like, well, I have money to pay the qualifying fee. I guess I'll do it. And so, I did. And then I won. So, I realized, well, I might have something to do with this. I really should probably invest in this a little more and see where this takes me. So here we are.
And that's why, because you are a member of the Democratic State Central Committee, which is the governing body of the Louisiana Democratic Party, that's why you and I were connected on the state party leadership elections. And you won your seat. That was last year that that election happened, right?
Right.
If I understand correctly, you were the first trans person to run and win a seat on the DSCC. Is that correct?
To my knowledge, yes. I'm the first openly transgender person to be elected in the state of Louisiana. To my understanding, there was someone previously elected that came out as trans after they were elected. So, I ran as an openly trans person and then won as an openly trans person.
And what does that victory mean to you in the context of the Democratic Party or also in the larger context of the state of Louisiana?
I think what it really meant to me was that my voice was valid. As a young trans person, I was told a lot that I was wrong, or I was invalid in whatever various ways they wanted to invalidate me that week. So that had definitely followed me through my life but winning the DSCC really showed me that it wasn't just like some crazy dream. It was actually something that was achievable. I don't know. Even though I won, I guess I realized that we really need to educate people about trans issues. During my campaigning, even though I was well aware that people were under-educated about trans issues, it was increasingly prominent to me during my campaigning. It just pushed me to armor up and decide that I wanted to be one of the people in Louisiana that was willing to share my story and talk to people and connect with people and educate people around trans issues and trans people to demystify us. I think we saw a lot of mystification of trans people happening in the legislature this session. And I think that's how they win these things is because people don't know trans people. People don't understand what the trans journey is like. So, I've decided that I will be a person that is willing to share my story in a way that hopefully can reduce the risks of this in the future.
And what I think is interesting is you ran as an openly trans person, not in New Orleans or Baton Rouge or Shreveport, where did you run for this office?
Yeah, I'm in House District 46, which is St. Martin Parish, parts of St. Martin Parish, Iberia Parish, and St. Landry Parish, which are incredibly conservative and incredibly small-town vibes.
And you actually also ran on a pretty progressive platform?
I did, yeah. My platform was racial justice and government accountability. I really thought that people should know what was happening in their government. We don't, like you said in our pre-podcast interview, the legislature, it's kind of a mystic realm to people outside of the legislature, and I wanted to help be the person that connected the legislature to the people and ensure that there is some accountability there.
And do you feel like you found your place within the state party yet?
I would say that I feel like I've found my place in politics, though I would not say I've felt like I've found a place in the state party because, though I have offered my expertise and energy in various places, that was never taken up. It was never accepted. So, I've not let that stop me. I decided I was going to just continue on my little own way and do what I had to do.
Well, very good. Well, let's pivot now. You mentioned the legislative session. And we're getting to the end of that for this year, thankfully. There were a few anti-trans bills that were proposed to this session. I know one, in particular, was passed yesterday to applause from the legislative body, which I'm not alone in having found particularly offensive. How does that reaction from our elected officials hit you as a good voting citizen of our state?
It was really shocking. It took me quite a few seconds to process the applause. And then after processing it, it really just struck me as just an incredibly rude and disrespectful action to take when you're actively taking rights away from people. It seems unideal to then clap about it and kind of woo woo about it. So yeah, it was pretty disgusting, I would say.
And you were organizing with the coalition against the passage of the anti-trans bills. Did y'all have any successes getting any of those bills squashed this year?
Absolutely, there were actually four anti-trans bills filed this session, one of which we just talked about and has made its way through the process. An identical bill to the one that made it through its process was killed in committee. And then there are two or there were two trans healthcare bans on trans youth that were filed. And we were able to just kind of demolish one in committee so effectively that the other bill was never even heard in committee because we had a sound argument. We brought doctors. We brought all the experts to let the legislators and the committee members know that this was not something that doctors supported.
What were the organizing efforts? What did they look like besides having people, experts come to the committee? Who was involved in that and what were the processes that y'all used?
LTA, Louisiana Trans Advocates teamed up with Forum for Equality from New Orleans, the ACLU of Louisiana, REJAC, Real Name Campaign, and some other amazing organizations, and we used probably almost every tactic in the book. We rallied people to call and email their legislators. We got people to contact the committee members to let them know how they wanted them to vote. We were able to rally people to the capitol for a trans lobby day on the same day of the house trans sports ban bill's hearing. And in doing so we were able to file a deck of red cards to the committee chair. And we were very successfully able to show in the number of cards filed what the will of the people was, and I think--
Explain to people what the red cards are if they've never been to legislative session.
Yeah. When you attend a committee hearing in state legislature, you're able to file either a green card in support of the bill you're supporting, or you're able to file a red card in opposition of the bill. And since we were opposing anti-trans bills, we rallied a deck of red cards against these bills. I remember for the senate healthcare ban, we were able to get so many red cards that Senator and Chairman Fred Mills said that he had never seen that amount of red cards in his committee or any of the committees he had ever been in for any bill ever.
And what's really impactful about that is they have to read every name if you submit a red card. They have to read that into the record. So that creates this long, drawn-out series of names against the bill. And that makes an impression.
Yeah, it was incredibly effective. Fred Mills said himself that if they were to pass the bill in that committee, it was going to be quite obvious that it was not the will of the people. And I just thought that was a really powerful thing from a Republican committee chair to say. He's also my senator. So, I appreciate Fred Mills.
Oh, wow. And then the other thing about the red cards and the green cards when you go file, when you go to a committee hearing, and you can look all that up on the legislative website, when you go to the committee hearing, and you file a card, you can say whether or not you want to speak for or against.
Right and that set us up for having an amazing group of people in opposition to the bill that were ready to speak and testify and share their expertise on how these bills are harmful.
And what the advocates and activists actually do in those cases, most of the time, is figure out who their strongest speakers are before they go into the committee hearing so that you're putting your strongest speakers and who's going to give the most effective testimony, you're making sure that they speak and not just everybody speaks. The red cards and reading them into the record is the important part. But then you want just your most impactful speakers to be the ones who get up and testify.
You don't want to disrespect committee members' time by overloading them with repetitive information and just information that isn't super relevant or on topic of the bill. I know that because we had so many red cards filed, they just told us, you cannot repeat anything, has to be on-topic. They allowed a trans youth to tell her story, but she and her family members, her father and her brother, were the only people that really told stories. The other people were all doctors giving testimony.
And were there any other organizing elements that y'all took advantage of this year that we haven't talked about yet? I know you probably have a pretty robust email list and that you're keeping people informed and engaged through that. Are there are other ways that you communicate with people and activate them?
We use LTA's email list and all of our coalition member's email lists. I think we even use someone's text messages to get texts out to people in certain areas to call their representatives to vote. We also use social media. Our first bill gained the most social media attention I would say, and it garnered, it went pretty viral on Twitter to a degree. And that was really helpful. It was a great start.
Did our legislature's efforts fit into any national trends on these issues that you're seeing?
Absolutely, we've seen anti-trans bills pop up across the country, including basically all of our neighboring states in Texas and Arkansas and Alabama. Louisiana had it relatively easy. I don't want to say that in a way that degrades our work here, but we only had four bills here, whereas other places just got bombarded with bills. Other places got bombarded with worse bills. I think it was in Tennessee where they passed an anti-trans bathroom bill that would require places that allow trans people to use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity to warn cis people that they're allowing trans people to use the bathroom, which is just so dangerous.
How do you even do that?
Yeah. How do you enforce that? How do you get there? It's just like a wild goose chase at this point for the trans people in the bathrooms. It's like, it's not an issue, and the real theme that just strikes me is that these things that these people across the country are making bills to fight against are not issues. They're not real issues. We don't see this happening on any kind of large scale. We literally know of one trans person in the country that has competed in an affirming sports team. It's just so annoying that these people are so happy to just pass these pills and do this to us across the country.
Well, and so what do you think is driving that? In other words, they're trying to address problems that don't exist. What's pushing that? I know that it's not just Republicans. We had a member of our Democratic Party leadership here in Louisiana who actually co-sponsored yesterday's bill, but it is mostly conservatives and Republicans pushing this. Are they seizing on an issue for a particular reason? Is this an attempt to motivate a certain block of voters or group of voters on their behalf? What are your thoughts on that? Where's this coming from?
Absolutely. I have two thoughts on this, one of which stems from studies that tell us that people are more likely to be affirming of trans people if they have a family member or a close family friend or if they know like, empathetically, emotionally, know a trans person. And we know that the people, or the percent of people that know trans people like that is very low. So, it's very easy for trans people to be villainized. And it's very easy to kind of have that strawman argument with trans people to say that they're going to do this or that even though it's untrue. But one thing I also think that is incredibly important is that conservatives have just, we talked about in our pre-interview, that they're just really trying to actively push false information on the people. And I think that trans people are a really easy target for them. Because, like we talked about, not many people know trans people, so it's really easy to push this false information. And also, it is more okay to be transphobic, for example, in Louisiana, Ray Garofalo said some racist stuff, and the speaker of the house removed him. Did the speaker of the house remove all the racist people? Absolutely not. But he said something racist, and therefore he was removed for it. But people can say transphobic things, and they don't get removed for it because the line of acceptable transphobic behavior is just way further than the line of other bigoted behavior. And I think that definitely stems from lack of education and empathy. But I think it really just revolves around like, we are a convenient target at the moment.
I want to connect back to what you were saying about our pre-interview. We were talking about disinformation in general and how conservatives and fringe parts of the Republican Party, who are becoming less fringe, are really making hay with a lot of disinformation and really shaping how people think in ways that are just not realistic. But it's also creating this us versus them mentality. And I think you're saying this is sort of one of those issues where it's very easy to create an us versus them space.
Absolutely. Yeah. Because the education is so low, it's really easy to pull that strawman argument out. For these sports bills, for these anti-trans sports bills, we saw cisgender men legislators being like, what if I want to compete against women? And it's like, well, you're not a trans person? And also, why do you want to compete against girls, sir? It's not at all what we're talking about. It is a complete strawman argument, and it's based out of no fact.
Most people who listen to this podcast would likely know what you mean when you use the word cis, but for those who might not, can you explain what that means?
Absolutely. So, I always start by saying, I am a transgender woman, and I was assigned male at birth. And now, I identify as a woman. A cisgender person usually doesn't have that disconnect with their assigned sex at birth and their gender identity. So, I don't want to make assumptions, but I would assume you, Lynda, as an AFAB person and a woman-identifying person, you are a cisgender woman.
You would be correct. So, just curious, and I'm not trying to get into gossipy space about this, but what are your thoughts on the members of the Democratic Party who were joining in these anti-trans efforts?
I think trans issues always come down to a lack of education. And I think that these Democrats that did side with the Republicans in these bills, I think they also suffer from that lack of education. And I think, and I told party leadership yesterday on the phone the same exact thing, that I think the party, I think it is a party's responsibility to step up and start trying to educate not only its constituents but its representatives on its issues. And that does of course mean trans issues, but it also means all of the other issues that the party supports that its legislators are not completely in line with. The Republicans are really tight, and they vote the same way almost all the time. And they have a great caucus and all that. Democrats need to do the same thing if they want to win. And I think that probably is going to require a lot of conversation and a lot of education.
I think those are good points. And you did tell me you were willing to speak to me about pronouns a bit. And I prefaced that question to you by saying that I think for younger people, this isn't a difficult concept to grasp. But for folks more of my peer group and older, I think sometimes we need help navigating this because it's a new concept to many. I can tell you that when I was growing up, I'm sure there were gay people around me, obviously, but really they weren't openly so at that point. And there was only one transgender person that I even remember being talked about. That was Renee Richards who was a tennis player in the 1970s and who won a landmark case challenging the U.S. Tennis Association in the New York Supreme Court allowing her to play in the U.S. Open in 1976. The two side notes on that: Richards was actually outed by Tucker Carlson's dad, and after she retired as a player, she coached Martina Navratilova to two Wimbledon titles. So, I just thought those were interesting side notes but that's seriously digressing. So, I want to go back to the conversation that I really was pivoting to, which was the pronouns, and I think Blair Imani did a great Smarter in Seconds TikTok, she does all these TikToks called Smarter in Seconds, on this issue, which I will link to in the podcast notes because I think it's really good. But she got through a lot of really great points in about one minute. One thing she talked about was when asking someone their pronouns, it makes it friendlier to give your pronouns first. And you kind of did that a little earlier when we were talking about cisgender. I'm Lynda, and I use she/her pronouns. And I've seen a big push to make this a part of meetings through name tags and Zoom renaming. Can you talk a bit about the importance of this?
Pronouns are an incredibly, I think, subconscious part of our conversations with people. I think most of the times when we say pronouns, we put very, very little thought into what word comes out of our mouth. And also to build on that, I don't think that people and older generations ever have to--okay, so, to pivot, I think that an issue that older generations have with pronouns is that they've never had to think consciously about their gender identity. They've never had to think consciously about their pronouns. And I think because young people are introduced to this, they're able to explore these concepts themselves. But I think that really does build that line between older generations and younger generations. And I totally understand how it can be kind of off-putting or even intimidating to people that just have no basis to build this foundation on for pronouns. But I would challenge them to empathize with people that have really taken the time to explore who they are and have really taken some time to explore how they want the world to see them, how they want people to see them, how they want the world to interact them. And I don't think, in my opinion, I don't think it is right for someone to tell that person, "I know you've done all this work, and I know you've really done all this introspection, but I'm going to invalidate that, and I'm going to call you a pronoun that doesn't identify with you or you don't identify with." I think that's really what it comes down to. It's not some big deal. It's not like a big task. If you mess up on someone's pronoun, just, you know, move on, correct yourself. You don't even need to apologize in most situations, in my opinion, because then you just kind of are like pointing it out in a little bit worse or putting some blame or some emotional responsibility on the person you're pronouncing incorrectly, but it's okay. We get it. It happens. The best you can do is just correct yourself, move on, do better next time.
I like that. And I like the way Blair Imani said it in her TikTok, if someone doesn't know what pronouns are, it isn't a conflict. It's a teaching moment.
Right.
And I like that.
And what you said about starting with you. If you don't know someone's pronouns, introduce yourself. Like you said, "My name is Peyton. My pronouns are she/her. What are yours? What's your name?" As a trans person, I forget people's pronouns too. Me and my partner will sometimes be like, "What is that person's pronoun? I'm forgetting." We're not just magically embedded in our brain. We also have to do the work to remember what people's preferences are. Actually, no, it's not their preferences. It is what they are going to be called. They do not prefer. It is just a respect thing. I guess we can pivot real quick to it is not someone's preferred pronoun. I do not prefer to be called she/her because that gives some kind of assumption that if you were to call me he/him that I might just be like, "Okay, well, I prefer she/her." And that is not the case. I would be a little offended. And I'd be like, "Okay, my pronouns are she/her." And we'd move on, but it is not a preference. It is the truth.
I like that. I like the way you said that. It's not a preference. It's the truth. And I can confirm that I'm really grateful to my friends when I make mistakes because I make mistakes. I've been gently corrected. And like you said, they just keep it moving. They don't dwell on it. They don't want me to dwell on it. And I feel like that's a really important part of acclimating folks who aren't accustomed to this conversation and actually welcoming them into it.
Right, and in an ideal world, in every situation when we told someone our name, it would be followed up with our pronouns, and therefore, it wouldn't be just, when you are talking to a person that you don't know their pronouns because they're obviously trans or something, it wouldn't be like, "Oh, you're a trans person, what are your pronouns?" It would just be like, in general, everyone, what are your pronouns? And I say that because me and my partner, who is also trans, talked about this concept of well, if you're only asking trans people their pronouns, is that innately transphobic in a way? And it is. It's an othering thing. And that's why I think the ideal world is we ask everyone their pronouns. And it is a thing that everyone just talks about in a way that doesn't other trans people. And it is just normal, for lack of a better word.
It's removing the burden of that from the person who is in the more vulnerable community.
Exactly. We want to empower not kind of other.
Is there anything on this issue we haven't hit on yet that you really think needs to be stated before we move on?
Yeah, let's real quick just talk about they/them pronouns. Please respect people that use they/them pronouns. If you don't get it, if you don't like it, like we talked about, it's not up to you. You don't get to prefer what pronouns you call people. It is that person's choice. And if they're asking you to call them they, then just do it. It's not an emotional burden on you to call them they, but it is an emotional burden on them if you do not call them they. So, let's just respect people and be empathetic and nice and loving. Like we need that.
I think respect is a big part of it.
Agreed.
You are a working professional, but you're also still really young. So, I'd like to ask you some of the questions I've been asking in my conversations with young Democratic leaders. I'm, as I always say, I'm not asking you to speak for all young voters. I just want your opinion as one piece of the puzzle as we're kind of piecing it together because I think it's an important conversation because young voters could swing elections if they really claimed their power and showed up to the polls in huge numbers. So, one of the questions I like to ask is, what do you think inspires young voters? And it's sort of two sides of that question I'm really asking: what inspires them to actually turn out to vote, but also what motivates them to get involved at a deeper level like you've done?
I'll start with what motivates young people to get involved. In my opinion, what really encourages young people to get involved is to be authentic about what you believe in and what you stand for and know what you are believing in and what you stand for. I know sometimes we see politicians, for example, that claim to be trans-affirming, and then they say some transphobic stuff. And they're like, I didn't know. And that's okay, but I think for young people, we, in more ways than others expect people to really mean what they say. And I think when we catch people kind of making those not small mistakes but more like moderate to large mistakes, it's really obvious to us that they're not being completely authentic in their messaging and what they believe in. And I would say that is one of the most important things to the young people that I know because we know that politics is corrupt. We know that the system is rigged. And if this system is going to be unrigged, it needs authenticity to flow freely. The system can be rigged authentically, but it would probably be a whole different world than we live in right now. And in terms of getting young people to the polls, I think authenticity goes a long way, but what I think goes even further is being bold and standing up for issues that young people care about. And in general, young people tend to lean a little further one way or the other. We tend to be a little bit more radical, a little bit more all of those things. And I think that because we tend to lean a little further left or right, it means that we need to, in our messaging and in our beliefs and in our positions, need to be meeting young people, to some degree, where they are. If they don't think you're doing enough, then you're just going to fit into the same rigged system category to them. And they're not going to go vote because the system is already rigged and all that stuff. And also, the future is really important to young people. I don't think it's as common for young people to think about the future. We tend to live in the moment a lot, but climate change will be drastic issue for us in the next few decades if it is not addressed rapidly now. It is projected that the majority of South Louisiana will be underwater by 2050. And there's probably a lot of young people here that either know or do not know that. And if they don't know that, it will be a rude awakening one day when their property starts flooding, and they can't live in their house, and you have to move. And if they do know, then you need to be someone fighting that otherwise, you're not going to be as valid to them. These issues are really important. I also think one really interesting thing about young people these days is that we're incredibly involved when we are involved. We have all of these social media items and tools at our disposal, and we are not afraid to use them. TikTok started as this little fun thing. And of course, it's still a fun entertainment platform, but it has also shifted drastically into a social justice and education platform. And considering the platform is still dominated by young people, it means that these young people are not only engaging with this information and this content, but they are invested and engaged, and I think young people when they realize their power will be a force to be reckoned with, especially people from my generation and slightly older, slightly younger. I think we're just kind of experts at social media and all these things. And when we release that, it will be something.
Well, I hope so. We need to turn the world over to you, I think. Is there political work you're doing now that you'd like folks to plug into? And if so, how could they connect to you?
Yeah. I'm going to remain involved in Louisiana Trans Advocates and doing trans advocacy. And I really encourage people here in Louisiana to get involved. We're probably going to see a terrible session next year when session comes around. We now know, or the legislators now know, that they can pass these anti-trans bills, at least one of them, and I think they're gonna probably try again. So, we really need people to be interested in donating their time, their energy, their money, their whatever to us to help us fight these bills, to show up to the capitol to fight the bills. Everyone's advocacy is different, and all are valid. But whatever yours is, please find a way to tie that into our trans advocacy wherever possible. I'll also just tease that I'll soon be launching a nonprofit to fight climate change here in Louisiana. And I would like that nonprofit to really focus on some direct action here in Louisiana to really help move us into a better direction and to be more educated about what is actually happening here in Louisiana. So, I would say if that's something you're also interested in, feel free to follow me on Twitter @peytonrose22 or add me on Facebook or something and make sure you're updated about when I launch that.
Well, I will post the links to connect with Louisiana Trans Advocates. And I can post your Twitter and Facebook links as well. So, if people want to connect and follow along and be the first to know about your nonprofit when it launches, then they'll have that opportunity in the podcast notes.
Awesome.
So last three questions I ask at the end of every episode, and I usually shift up the way I ask the first two of these. So, I'm going to ask you, what are the biggest obstacles in Louisiana for progressives?
The biggest obstacle I've seen for progressives in the past few years has been our inability to build a unified coalition and stand together with each other. I think that that has kind of been moving in a more positive direction, especially with this legislative session and other kinds of things happening. But I think, I talked about this earlier with the Republicans, the Republicans are a tight party. They vote together. They are a unit. And that is why they have maintained power. In the Senate, it's a 50/50 vote. If just a few Republicans, 10 of them, sided with Democrats, we would win the votes, but they don't consistently. And I think that it falls back on progressives and Democrats. We need to understand that that is a tactic that is very effective. And we have different opinions and different issues and all of the things, but we really need to stick together and ensure that we are a force to be reckoned with just like the Republican Party and the conservatives are.
And what do you see as our biggest opportunities?
I think our biggest opportunity is young people. We talked about how young people are becoming more politically engaged and more educated, and, I think, more empathetic and interested in justice. And I think that while young people tend to be kind of ostracized from party systems right now, which are generally led by old people, no offense. No offense to all old people, but like, I get it. That's the power. That's how it happens. But it's time to start letting young people make decisions. It's time to start training young people on how to do these things and how to be a leader in these spaces. For example, I mentioned how I reached out multiple times to the Democratic Party and offered my energy to help and to be involved. And I haven't really been taken up on that offer. And I'm not saying it's because they don't want me involved, but as an elected young person, I feel it is incredibly important that we start listening to young people and start empowering them to talk and speak and say what they need to say because if we continue to disempower them, then they're just not going to say anything, and then it's going to be too late, and you're going to be losing. You're going to be relying on young people, but they're not going to be interested because you don't listen to them. And I think, yeah.
Well, you have to give young people a reason to stay in the state. And if they don't have a voice here, there's much less of a reason to stay here.
Right, exactly. It's so convenient to go elsewhere. I know for the majority of my life, I wanted to move to a much more progressive place. And it was only until the last few years when I realized Louisiana really needs me here. And I really shouldn't just go somewhere that's better even though it would probably be so much more fun, but no. I'll stay and do the work.
Well, I'm glad you're here. Peyton, who's your favorite superhero?
Oh, my God. I was watching some Louisiana Lefty Podcast episodes this week. And I was like, I knew we had this interview, I was like, who is my favorite superhero? Oh my god. It was so funny because I just kept thinking about people I know in my life.
Which is fine. There's no rule.
I was just like, Dylan Waguespack? I don't know. Dylan Waguespack would probably be my answer. He's not a superhero. But he is amazing and my mentor and just lovely. And for context, he is the president of Louisiana Trans Advocates. He works now for True Colors United. And he's an amazing trans advocate and has shaped who I am as a person and who I am as an advocate. And he is just amazing.
And you know, I always say that organizers are my superheroes and Dylan is a first-class organizer.
He purely is. I think every time I talk to him now, I'm just like, thank you so much for your energy and your work and your advocacy. He really is a little superhero.
Oh, well, I love that. Peyton, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate this conversation. And I hope we get to connect in person soon.
Absolutely. The clock is ticking. Are you vaccinated?
I am vaccinated. I've been through the two-week period, and I started going out into the world with no mask on which has been very liberating.
I love that. I actually am vaccinated, so I guess we're going to have to find some time to meet up soon.
Well, I love that. All right. Thank you again.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to Louisiana Lefty. Please subscribe to our podcast and then follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Thanks to Ben Collinsworth for producing Louisiana Lefty, Jennifer Pack of Black Cat Studios for our Super Lefty artwork, and Thousand $ Car for allowing us to use their Swamp Pop classic "Security Guard" as our Louisiana Lefty theme song.
